E-safety

At St Francis Catholic Primary School we take safeguarding extremely seriously, this includes online safety. We live in an ever changing technological world where technology and the Internet is used extensively at home and also at school across all areas of the curriculum. Online safeguarding, known as e-safety is an area that is constantly evolving.

e-Safety is embedded into our curriculum; our children are given advice and guidance by all staff. Similarly all children are made aware how they can report areas of concern whilst at school or outside of school, what to do if they don’t feel comfortable about something they see on line and what to do if they feel bullied on line or see bullying taking place on line.

We recently handed out two e-safety questionnaires, one for the parents, and one for the children, the results of which can be found here and here. They’ve helped us set out our priorities, which are listed below:

For children

ensuring children understand how they can keep their identities safe through the use of privacy settings
appropriate use of social media
pupils talking to parents about how they use mobile devices

For parents

filtering and monitoring software
how to monitor your children’s activity including use of social media
talking to children about online safety

Parents and Carers

Parents play an important role in the development of their children and as such we want to work together to ensure you have the skills and knowledge you need to ensure the safety of children outside the school environment.

We have provided some useful internet (eSafety) information and links below.

Meet ‘The Internet Eyes’

Meet our newly appointed E-safety ambassadors, also known as….The Internet Eyes! They will assist staff in areas involving internet safety. Helping to educate the children on how to stay safe online. Their job is to:

Arrange themed online safety assemblies once every half term.
Conduct online bullying assemblies.
To organise a special assembly on Safer Internet Day (SID) in February.
Help to run an e safety club.
Monitor the e safety displays in the classroom and ICT suite i.e. ensure that the SMART rules are on display.
Take part in e safety parent workshops.
Consult the views of all children and see if there are any concerns or issues they need to be aware of.
Help the e safety lead identify any areas of concern on social media, which may need to be mentioned in a termly e safety newsletter.
Meet with the e safety governor to update him with information regarding e safety in the school.

“Being an E-safety ambassador is great! We get to help everyone at school be safe on the internet. Our first goal is to present different powerpoints to the children and help them understand the dangers of the internet.” – Lia

The Eyes gave their first presentation to KS2 recently, check out their presentation below:

The Digizen Family Agreement:

CHILDNET Leaflets in 12 different Languages

I am a retired Deputy Head of St. Simon Stock School and have lived in Maidstone for 43 years. I have spent 34 years working in Catholic education. I have two married daughters both of whom went to St Francis School and St. Simon Stock School. I also have four grandchildren two of whom attend junior school with a third to follow in September. I became a foundation governor at the school in February 2017 and am currently chair of the Curriculum sub-committee.

Declan Connolly – Foundation Governor

Curriculum and Faith Dimension Committee member

I have been a Governor at St Francis’, where my siblings and I attended school in the 1980s and 1990s, since 2018. Two of daughters are currently in Y2 and Y5. I have worked in education for Kent County Council for over a decade and I’m currently working for Kent’s Governance and Clerking Services team having moved across from School Improvement recently. I hope that my experience and knowledge of working in education in Kent can contribute to help our school become an even more positive and wonderful place for the children to learn, grow and be safe and happy.

Tom Winek Foundation Governor

Finance Committee Member

I became a Foundation Governor at St Francis in 2019. Following a 15 year teaching career, I worked for 25 years for a PR/marketing consultancy before retiring to write novels. Not wanting to lose contact with education, I became a governor at Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys in 1994 and was chairman for nine years until moving to Maidstone in 2012. I joined the Academy Council of Saint Augustine Academy and have been its chairman since 2016. I also served three years as a local governor at Holy Family Catholic Primary School, Maidstone. I am a member of the Maidstone Circle of the Catenian Association and am currently president of Province 7. My interests in education are the curriculum, the philosophical foundations of what we teach, and the links between learning and the Faith.

Michael Reidy – Training Governor and member of Curriculum Committee

I became a Parent Governor in 2017, and I have a daughter in Year 5. My desire to become part of the Governing Body comes from my strong belief in the importance of education for our children, and the desire to help support the school leadership to make our school the best it can be. I have lots of varied experience of working outside of education; for the past nineteen years I have worked at the London Fire Brigade in IT and Information Management; and it is my hope that this enhances the work of the Governing Body by bringing a fresh perspective and an alternate point of view. It has been a great privilege getting to know the school and the staff better, and seeing, first-hand how the school is run. Also a real learning journey discovering the breadth of challenges that need to be addressed in order to not just maintain our school, but to improve it and make it the sort of place where of children can be safe, have fun and most importantly learn and develop as young scholars and people. I’m interested in all aspects of the school, but as a dyslexic I also have a particular interest in how the school addresses the needs of those with all kinds of special educational needs.

Christopher O’Connor – Parent Governor

Curriculum Committee member, School Website Governor

Simon Cripps – Chair of Finance, Safeguarding Governor and Premises Committee member

Minecraft

Minimum Age: None

A computer game that allows the user to ‘mine’ materials and ‘craft’ objects. To access certain online social features for under 13’s parents must provide permission.

Pokemon Go

Minimum Age: 9

A free-to-play, location-based game that combines GPS tracking with ‘augmented reality’ to allow the player to capture fictional animals in real life locations through their device’s screen.